Pokemon Toons Coming to Hulu in the U.S.

Pokemon Co. International and Hulu cut a pact to bring animated titles based on the Japanese monster videogame franchise to the free Hulu service and the subscription Hulu Plus.

All visitors to Hulu.com in the U.S. can now watch the “Pokemon Origins” animated special, which tells the story of the first videogames, and five episodes from the first season of the Diamond & Pearl story arc. Other content launching soon on the free version of Hulu will be the first two episodes of “Pokémon the Series: XY.”

Subscribers of Hulu Plus ($7.99 monthly) will get access to more, including: the first season of the Diamond & Pearl story arc (season 10), with three additional seasons coming soon (seasons 11–13); the full four-part “Pokémon Origins” animated special; and feature-length animated movie “Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai.”

Upcoming Pokemon content on Hulu Plus will include three other movies — “Pokémon: Giratina & the Sky Warrior,” “Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life” and “Pokémon—Zoroark: Master of Illusions.”

Pokémon was first introduced in 1996 as a Nintendo game. To date, more than 245 million videogames and 20 billion Pokémon trading cards have been sold. The animation library includes more than 700 animation episodes and 16 full-length animated films. In October 2013, the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y video games launched worldwide for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, and sold 4 million copies globally in their first two days of sale.

The Pokemon content on Hulu and Hulu Plus — at hulu.com/pokemon — will first be available in English, and most content will follow in Latin American Spanish soon after. Hulu is promoting the Pokemon titles in its Hulu Kids section.